Mushi Suru
by LilyTheDolphin
Summary: I can't tell you how many times I felt like giving up after being separated from my sister. But it was the promise that I made to her that moved me through everything Dad threw at me. But promises can be broken. And when living with my dad, this promise is as fragile as a teacup. Can I keep it? [Theory about Yukine's past] Cover art credit: Yukine Kawaii
1. Prologue

The Yato God rarely shed tears, but after learning about his latest Shinki's past...

He couldn't think of a worse way to die... not after what that boy went through. Yato could relate to him, for he himself had similar relationships with his father.

Was that the real reason why Yato hadn't been able to bring himself to release the Shinki after being stung past endurance?

Probably.

Had it not been taboo, could Yato have told the Shinki about his past?

No.

But now, after what happened in the heavens, he was starting to remember...

Yato had given the Shinki the name Yukine three months after Yukine's death.


	2. Chapter 1 - Songbird

p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 0px; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emSunday, 6th October, 2013/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;" /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"If my name had any importance to what I'm about to tell you, I'd give it to you. But, as it is, I won't. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"I'm thirteen years old. I live with my mom, my dad, and my little sister in a pretty small, slightly rundown house in the city. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Mom works at the local sushi restaurant, and she hates it. The staff are nice enough, but she's got a weak stomach, and the smell of raw fish makes her throw up. Her friend is trying to help her find a new job, but they aren't having much luck./p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Mom's in her late thirties, but she looks decades older these days, with wrinkles all over, and her long hair greying and lank. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"And the very reason for that is because she made the stupidest marriage in the world. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Dad's retired early. He used to work as an engineer for a big company, but he pulled a muscle in his back, which resulted in permanent damage and meant he couldn't work anymore. He walks around in this hunched-up position now./p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"A back injury won't stop him from beating the hell out of you if you piss him off. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"He gets pissed off often, as well. He could bellow your name from somewhere halfway across the house where you can't hear him, and he'll slap you in the "lazy-ass" face for not going to him. And we daren't argue back. If we do, we'll get more than a slap. Especially me. Because for some reason, Dad's got it in for me more than anyone else. I wonder how thrilled he was when Mom told him she was pregnant with me. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"And it's not like I've got anyone to talk to about him. I'm not gonna walk up to someone in my class and say, "Oh, hey. Mind if I discuss my worries with you?" It'll be on the Internet next: "Burumun uses Tokona as personal therapist". I haven't got any friends at this crappy new middle school. I have no one to confine in. No one to comfort me. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Instead, I have someone emto/em comfort. Little Utahime. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"She's the equivalence of my lifeline, the one thing in the world that prevents me from leaving my shoes on the top of a fifty foot building. I take her to school every morning, even though it means I have to peddle my ass off to get to my own school before the bell rings. If I'm even a minute late for class, my substitute teacher gives me that look as though I've lumbered in stark naked and dripping with blood. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"I also help her with her homework. Utahime's dyslexic, so it's kinda difficult to try and get her to understand especially Japanese, no matter how hard she tries to learn. But we've got these emLanguage Arts Made Easy/em books that get her going with simple sentences. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Her dyslexia doesn't make her in any way stupid, though. She tries so hard for me, especially after Dad's given me a beating. She runs down to the convenience shop and the pharmacy for me, and sometimes treats my cuts and bruises for me. One time, Dad pushed me out of my bedroom window in a drunken temper, and I broke my big toe. She gave me a painkiller while looking up on the Internet how to fix the bone. Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Just go to the hospital!" Well, Dad has emstrictly/em forbidden us to go to the Iki General Hospital, no matter what happens to us. He's paranoid about us telling the doctors that he abuses us. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"So, instead, Utahime found an illustrated step-by-step article on how to bandage up a broken toe. And she did a great job of it, for a nine-year-old girl who has to be entirely reliant on the images. I was off crutches within a fortnight. Don't call me a drama king for having to use crutches, but my left knee is permenantly jacked up after Dad punched me and I slammed it hard into the low table in the living room. It probably would've healed bettwr had I got proper treatment on it - but now I have to rely on my right leg to be in constant perfect condition. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Utahime also brings like to even the worst situations, like tonight. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Rows between Mom and Dad have been getting more and more frequent lately, but this was their worst one. I could hear Dad's voice getting hoarser and hoarser with rage, and Mom's getting higher and higher with terror. I sat in bed, hands pressed over my ears, trying to block out the sound of the loud blow and Mom screaming coming from beneath the floor. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Then I suddenly heard snuffling. I slid out of bed and peered beneath it. Utahime was curled up in a ball in the dark, a pillow clasped over her ears, streams of tears running down her face. How had I not noticed her there before?/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""Uta-chan," I said, reaching out and clasping her hand. It was cold and a little clammy. Her fingers intertwined with mine as she opened her big beautiful amber eyes, looked at me. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""Onii-chan..." she whispered./p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emNote from author: 'Onii-chan', in this case, means 'big brother'./em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""Come out of there, Uta-chan," I said. "You'll set off your asthma."/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"She crawled out from under the bed, and we sat upon it. She rested her head in my lap, allowing me to stroke her little blonde locks. We tried to ignore the rumbling booms of Dad's voice downstairs. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""Sing a song, Onii-chan," said Utahime. "That one about the two songbirds."/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"I smiled. I had made up this song for her a long time ago, when she was about six. Even now, I sang it to her every time Mom and Dad had agrow. /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""Sure," I said, and started to sing:/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;" /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;""emTwo little songbirds,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emIn a sakura tree,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emSinging so sweetly,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emFree as free can be./em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"em /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emTwo little songbirds,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emPerched on a twig,/emem /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emFar, far away,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emFrom the vulture so big. /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"em /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emTwo little songbirds,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emSinging a song,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emBeneath a beautiful red sun,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emWith darkness all gone./em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"em /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emLa, la la, la, la,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emLa, la-la, la-la,/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emLa, la, la."/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"em /em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"Normally, Utahime would sing along with me. She has such a sweet voice when she sings especially the "La la la" part. But with what was going on downstairs, she could do nothing but quiver in my lap. But I sang the song over and over again, until she finally fell asleep./p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;" /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"emMonday, 7th October, 2013/em/p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.1em; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;" /p  
p style="font-family: Dante; font-size: 23px; margin-top: 1em; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 0.8em; color: #222222; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em !important;"I must've fallen asleep at some point, too, because when I feel someone shaking me awake, I open my eyes to see I'm lying flat on my back. Mom's bending over me, her hand not on me, but Utahime, who's still curled up on my knee. It's still dark outside/p 


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